


Seen the Light

by JelliPuddi



Category: Puyo Puyo (Video Games), 魔導物語 | Madou Monogatari Series (Video Games)
Genre: Dark Matter is ticklish, Gen, I like using both spellings for Ecolo/Ekoro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 21:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19159624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JelliPuddi/pseuds/JelliPuddi
Summary: After the Creator destroyed everything in the old Madou world, remnants of what used to be somehow still found themselves trapped in what felt like purgatory. A space-time traveler comes across these remaining spirits, one of which he has a lot in common with.





	Seen the Light

**Author's Note:**

> This is simply a remake/rewrite of a fan-fic I made years ago on my old FF.net, more accurate to the Shin Madou continuity. The original was very silly, this one has more of an angsty feel to it.
> 
> Also, Ecolo is referred to with he/him pronouns, which is just personal preference.

Inside of a large empty void was only a lone figure. He was bony, clad in a torn purple outfit that seemed rather exotic, and wrapped in bandages. A sigh escaped him as he gazed into a crystal ball, thinking about the desolate future that lied ahead. Even after the Creator had seemingly destroyed everything the undead mage had known, he could not die. The dark mage was stuck in between realms of existence along with another.

Flipping some pages belonging to an old book, the mage darted his eyes between the spellbook and the crystal ball in his bony hand. "To be stuck in such a purgatory could drive anyone mad. How is it that I was powerful enough to survive? How did that disgusting fiend get stuck here with me for that matter?" The mage grumbled to himself. "I should have given up and stopped thinking about it, but I cannot shake the urge of escaping in the near future! I need some kind of solace that can be given to me. I refuse to be trapped here!"

A dark mist appeared in the crystal ball. It had the color of a light blue inside of it, almost like some sort of core. The mage was seeing something different for once, but what was this? A light that would guide him out? Or perhaps it was a pit full of further despair and punishing for what he had done. A smile formed in the darkness, having the same sort of glow as the blue light did.

It was drooling, and then it spoke to him.

"Hello!"

Falling onto his back, the mage slammed his book shut. He had come face to face now with the future, but some sort of creature invading his own foresight. "Who or what are you? And what is your business here?" The mage then hesitated, thinking more about it. "More importantly, how did you reach this area in the first place? This is literal nothingness, and you entered this space!?" His demands ended up being mocked by the dark figure.

"I wandered here on my own out of boredom," the figure answered, "When I arrived, that grandpa character said I would find one of his friends lying around this place!"

"Grandpa character?" The mage shuffled his books and crystal ball to the side, not trusting this fiend.  
"Yeah, that guy with tentacles!"

"Fudoushi, of course," the mage groaned, "remind me to kill him later." He got back up to his bony feet, no longer drifting as he originally was before the dark figure arrived. "Calling him a friend is a really strong word. He may consider me one, but I see that old brittle fool as a surprisingly worthy rival of my respect. That being said, we are both trapped in here, so we're not associated by choice."

The dark figure tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

He exchanged a glare with the mysterious figure. "You don't know?" The invader shook his head in response, seeming increasingly curious, making the mage sigh in irritation. "This realm is what remains of what was destroyed by a crooked creator, a war started thousands of years ago. A powerful magician set to stop him at the cost of no life being left in this world. Everything is an empty standstill, where only the dead somehow thrive and exist. In a cruel way, this is like the underworld, but there is no devil in sight."

He seemingly ignored the long speech, like a confused child that had to tune out everything that was long and boring. "I'm known as Ecolo," the figure finally introduced himself, "I can travel through space and sometimes dimensions, so I came here for a moment out of boredom!" The mage felt partially insulted that this creature brushed this story off like it was nothing important, but also curious.

"Ecolo, yes?" The mage was met with a smile and a nod. "You may call me Dark Matter, it is the only thing I am known by ever since my life and past were both long forgotten. Tell me this though, you can travel across dimensions?"

"Nice to meet you, Dark Matter!" Ecolo chirped. "And yeah, that's right!"

"Then are you the future I desperately sought so badly? Are you here to free me from this purgatory and bring me to a place where I can cease being here?"

There was a moment of hesitation as Ecolo processed what had been requested. "Nope!" The mage drew back in shock. "I'm just here to observe. Besides, you look really powerful and scary sort of wizard, that wouldn't be good! Ringo would yell at me for sure if I brought over someone evil, I don't want to upset her like that!" Turning his back, Ecolo began to float away, almost a kid intentionally getting himself lost in a park.

Dark Matter's fury boiled, but he knew that showing his power to Ecolo would only prove the traveler's point on being a person who only sought to destroy. No, he couldn't have that, so talking his way through freedom was a much easier and safer option, provided that Ecolo would listen.

"Ecolo? Who is this Ringo person you do not wish to upset?"

He spun around to face the mage once more, looking defensive all of the sudden. "She's a special person! Why do you want to know? Are you planning something bad?"

"No," Dark Matter continued, "it just sounded like you were fond of her."

"I am!" Ecolo's mood quickly swung in the other direction, his face smiling with a bit of drool hanging out of his mouth.

"Are you? Well, you seem very much attached to her, and I find that peculiar for someone who looks like a shadow made from the black void of the galaxies." Tapping his bony fingers against his own head, Dark Matter slowly started to realize why Fudoushi might have sent the intruder over to him. "Tell me, do you care for her so much that you tried to take her power and cause chaos in the other worlds?"

"No," Ecolo was only partly lying, and Dark Matter could tell. Giving Ecolo a cold, harsh glare was enough to make him fess up. "I might have possessed someone else for their magic powers and have tried to cover the world in Puyo, but that's it, I promise! That's not so bad, is it? Why do you want to know anyway?"

"It's close enough," Dark Matter muttered, "but you also use dark and cosmic powers?" The mage was met with another nod in response, Ecolo now seeming increasingly uncertain. "Is there anyone who gets in the way of your friendship with this Ringo individual?"

Finally snapping, Ecolo turned back the other way. "No! There's no third wheel pretty boy or anything like that! Why do you care so much about my backstory all of a sudden, Darky?" Dark Matter flinched at the nickname Ecolo had just given him. It was hard to place into words really since Dark Matter rarely to never spoke of his past with others.

Not only that, but he didn't wish to talk about it in front of Ecolo, who seemed rather naive. "You should be more careful, Ecolo," Dark Matter hissed, "affection for someone could easily be the cause of your own demise. I would not be a skeletal mess I am now if not for being so emotionally attached. It's for the best that you completely disregard your feelings on the matter— "

The copycat felt his emotions get the best of him there. Making a blue-colored apple form in his palm, he tossed it at Dark Matter, which had no effect. "Don't ever say that, you liar!" Ecolo retorted. "All I want is to have fun, I'm not some kind of gloomy destroyer like you are!" Examining the unusual fruit, the mage pocketed it for now, as he was becoming increasingly frustrated with Ecolo's childish behavior.

"All I wanted to do was make an ideal world, free of the chaos which eventually killed everyone and ended the world, leaving only the empty void which stands here now!" Dark Matter ranted "Even if it meant hurting others, it would have been for the best in the long run! I am not a villain who lusts for power, nor I am a psychotic killer! But what do I get for my actions? Being killed and rejected for another! Such loved individuals will ones only hurt you even when you know what's best for them!" Ecolo just stopped for a moment, feeling himself curl up at Dark Matter's words.

For once, Ecolo quivered, terrified and heartbroken by the mage's words, wishing he didn't understand what that meant. It wasn't really the first time Dark Matter's ranting about the future and safety had pushed people to tears, and it felt just as bad as it did the last time he did so.

Rolling himself back into a standing position, Ecolo pouted, trying to stand up to the dark mage. "I can't even die you know, I can vanish, but I'll just come back. You're just trying to discourage me." He proceeded to flick little sparks at Dark Matter before trying to abandon him.

"Do not be stubborn, you specter," Dark Matter called out to him, abandoning his spellbook and crystal ball. "As a fortune teller, I can tell you any form of fate, even your own. If you take me out of this place, I can show you what yours is, and then surely you would believe me!" Blinking, Ecolor just made mocking noises at him.

"Bleh-bleh-bleh!" Dark Matter cringed at the childish taunts and rasping. "I'm a lonely and creepy fortune teller, and I like pushing away any form of friends!" Ecolo changed his shape, taking the shape and appearance of Dark Matter like the copycat he was. The mage felt his body freeze up, then boil with frustration. "You kind of remind me of that other testy fortune-telling girl who dresses all goth-like, equally obsessive too." Returning to Dark Matter, Ecolo tugged on the bandages which dangled from the undead man's body.

Trying to snatch them back, Dark Matter felt the wrapping around his arms peeled away faster than he could recover them. "I demand that you return those. And for the last time, I was simply trying to give you advice with nothing but good intention!" Still having taken Dark Matter's shape, Ecolo wrapped the bandages around his mouth.

"Now I really look like you, don't I, Darky?" Ecolo chuckled, his constant change in emotions were becoming tiring, but again, Dark Matter could not possibly risk a more dangerous method. Not when he could see the light in his reach so long as he behaved. Rather than bothering anymore, he played the silent game against Ecolo, choosing to ignore his words and keep at a reasonable, following distance.

Ecolo changed back and glanced to Dark Matter, dancing around the mage with an amused expression. The endearing looks stopped once Ecolo played with Dark Matter's clothes and his cap, still finding he was getting no reaction. "Now you're really acting like an empty corpse, maybe I'll just leave you like this, huh?" In a teasing manner, Ecolo poked the back of Dark Matter's spine and—

The mage yelped and fell over on his front, quickly regaining composure so he could start floating in the air once more. Taking a moment to process that, Ecolo's confused face turned into a giddy one as he began repeatedly poking Dark Matter. "No!" The mage stammered. "Refrain from this, for I am quite sensitive there and it is not funny in the slightest!"

None of that prevented Ekoro from tormenting the dark mage, he only ceased once an eerie, rotten presence made itself known. "Ah, blob child," Fudoushi sniggered, "I see you found Dark Matter's weak spot. He hates physical contact, you know." The tickling stopped and Ecolo pulled himself away from Dark Matter, who dusted himself off and readjusted the bandages. "Now, why do you look so angry, my friend?"

If looks could kill right about now, Fudoushi would have been more dead than he already was. Even with the world destroyed he had to exist in constant pain as if his punishment years ago wasn't bad enough. "Aren't you happy that someone curiously poked their head into what has essentially been our hell? I would say this is only worse than hell due to how nothing ever happens. I really hate how I haven't rotted away or dissolved by now, it's such a dilemma!" Reaching for Ecolo, Fudoushi gave a gentle pat to the space-time traveler, who didn't once cringe at his filthy nails.

"So this is your friend, right grandpa guy?"

"Yes, that's right. Unlike me, he doesn't really have much motivation to cause trouble anymore. He used to rain meteor showers upon the world, much like how you did with blobs, is that right?" Neither Ecolo nor Dark Matter replied to the necromancer. "How interesting that there are worlds far beyond our own, which is nothing but rubble since Satan himself had left this place. Dark Matter, do you really want to leave me here too?" The dark mage scoffed at him, reaching out to Ecolo in hopes of finally being free.

"Why would I not take the chance to be away from this purgatory?" Dark Matter questioned back. "I have been here too long, not once have I found whatever remains of Wish. If she's still here, then I can always return to where she might be resting." In response, Fudoushi cackled a creepy laugh, his back facing Dark Matter's. "The other mage which had defeated me and Wish's granddaughter are still out there, aren't they, Ecolo? I can seek solace in that."

Ecolo started to take Dark Matter's bony arm, something which made the mage tremble. "You mean the guy with the sword and miss pointy hat? Yeah, I know where they are. But they've never mentioned you at all!" Dark Matter's face fell when he heard that. He knew that he wasn't held in high regard, why should he be? But for the successor of Rune Lord's powers to never mention how Dark Matter had been slain?

"They didn't really survive the Creator's massacre, Dark Matter," the worst had been said by Fudoushi, "Satan just recreated them, they are not the same people they once were. Your existence, as well as mine, are nothing but an afterthought to the devil. If you were thinking of seeking some sort of redemption through them, they wouldn't know who you were." Something about that made Ecolo pity Dark Matter, watching as the mage tried to walk away from the fact that was just spoken.

After Dark Matter drifted further and further, Fudoushi just grinned up to Ecolo. "You can come back at a later time when he takes another hundred years to stop moping about the truth that he can't fix. I don't know when that will be, but I don't mind playing with you just to keep my sanity." Once again, the space-time traveler had a change in mood, smiling at the offer of fun. Although, Fudoushi's definition of 'fun' usually involved horrific illusions while Ecolo's involved Puyo.

Dark Matter though, he had no real definition of fun. It was like nothing could make him happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, maybe I should write a sequel to this? I don't know? Everyone has figured out I got a soft spot for the Madou final bosses.


End file.
